Gathered Blooms

One day on returning from work, in a relaxed mood, I hummed a tune that randomly popped up in my mind, as I pressed my face into a towel, to pat dry it. It suddenly struck me that a high pitched note just came up very smoothly and effortlessly which, did not happen when I had frantically attempted several years before. I was reminded of the Zen story, "The First Principle" Kosen, a Zen master, was good at calligraphy . One cannot but admire his work on a gate on which, it is carved "The First Principle". The letters were carved on the gate replicating what he had sketched on a piece of paper. The gate still bears testimony to the beautiful work of the Master in Obaku temple, Kyoto, Japan. The process of Kosen sketching those letters has become a beautiful and thought provoking Zen story. When Kosen was engaged in sketching the letters, one of his disciples, rather a bold one, criticised the very first effort of Kosen, "Oh that is not good!" Kos...

Om Namo Bhagavate Shri Ramanaya I am not the body nor am I the mind (Please read the previous posts for details) So 'Who am I?' The small booklet 'Who am I' of Ramana Maharshi is enough to dispel all doubts. What is left over is a vibrant silence, being-ness or consciousness. So if  I am this silence or consciousness, then the essence of everyone, should be the same. A oneness in consciousness is experienced (Universal oneness) Division can exercise only with the body or the form as 'you,' 'me,' 'they,' 'them' 'it' etc. Division is out of question beyond forms (body), (IE) when we understand that we are not the body. A small exercise suggested by Swami Ashokananda in His 'Not many but one' is really interesting. When one happens to see a person, a dog, a tree or anything else for that matter, He asks one to pierce through the form to identify the oneness in consciousness, spirit or silence (all means the same). Th...

Om Namo Bhagavate Shri Ramanaya! When there is a knower within oneself who knows the body, and surpasses the mind, then I cannot be the body that I had identified myself so far with! (Read The Meaning Of Consciousness for a better understanding of this statement) So whatever remained, after banishing the mind and the body is the ‘Self’. There is a being-ness that is alive, before the mind soon slips away in its vagabond ways which is self- consciousness. It is the Grace of the Master that gets one to persevere in his efforts. The Seers say that the endless extension of this vibrant stillness is what the ultimate state is. It is an interesting fact to notice the truth that goes unnoticed in our day to day life. We say ‘My body,’ ‘My mind,’ ‘My hand’ etc. The ‘My,’ the truth goes unnoticed and the focus is on body, mind hand etc. Whose hand, body or mind? “It is mine (I)” So we are essentially self-conscious, just that we lose track of it. So what happens of the body? In ...

Om Namo Bhagavate Shri Ramanaya! The word ‘Consciousness,’ was not more than a spiritual term, until I came across a book that introduced me to its deeper meaning. In one of my visits to Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, in the book store, I happened to pick up a book by Swami Ashokananda, “When the many become one.”  The title was nevertheless catchy and promised a detailed expression of the truth. It is a book very potent in knowledge and to be read slowly in order to grasp and digest the lofty truth that the words tried to portray. The word ‘Consciousness,’ as the book revealed, is the simple fact that all objects existed in our own consciousness (i.e.), any object that we perceive is in our own consciousness.  They will have to remain in the field of our consciousness in order to exist.  In other words we will have to be conscious of objects, only then can they be perceived. For example we perceive a glass only because we are conscious of it. We perceive an ant only because we...